2. Union Legislation

Abstract

This chapter examines how the European Union institutions cooperate in the creation of European legislation. Unlike many national legal orders, the EU Treaties expressly distinguish two types of legislative procedures: an ordinary legislative procedure and special legislative procedures. According to the ordinary legislative procedure, the European Parliament and the Council act as co-legislators with symmetric procedural rights. European legislation is here seen as the product of a ‘joint adoption’ by both institutions. Meanwhile, the defining characteristic of the special legislative procedures is that they abandon the institutional equality between the Parliament and the Council. The chapter then looks at the principle of subsidiarity—an EU constitutional principle that was designed to prevent the EU legislator from exercising its competences where the Member States would be able to achieve the desirable social aim themselves. It also considers the procedure for the conclusion of international agreements.